


The 3 times Eddie heard Richie mentioned at work and the 1 time they actually met him

by Bow_of_Artemis



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Closeted Character, Coming Out, Established Relationship, Fix-It, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, M/M, Office Party, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Sort of Eddie just doesn't die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22408465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bow_of_Artemis/pseuds/Bow_of_Artemis
Summary: Eddie has moved across the country to be with Richie but still doesn't feel comfortable telling the people he works with. However, that doesn't stop them from bringing him up.(Just read the title)
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 18
Kudos: 370





	The 3 times Eddie heard Richie mentioned at work and the 1 time they actually met him

**Author's Note:**

> Eddie is happy and dating Richie I don't care what Andy and Stephen say. Slight warning for occasional swearing.

It started as a normal day at work, or at least Eddie’s new normal. He upheaved his entire life in New York, divorcing Myra, and moved all the way across the country to live with Richie. After slightly dancing around each other in the beginning, worried the other might not reciprocate their feelings, they finally started dating and were now happier than they had ever been; settled down into the domestic life and even getting a Pomeranian. Eddie had chosen not to tell his co-workers about him dating another man, particularly that that man is Richie Tozier, who was yet to publicly come out.

A couple months into his job in L.A. Eddie finally properly talks to one of his co-workers, Matt. It’s not that he doesn’t like Matt, he just seems to rub Eddie the wrong way. He’s rather narrow-minded for someone who lives in L.A. of all places, although in Derry he’d probably be seen as the posterchild for acceptance. They’re making small talk while on lunch break together when Matt says something that completely takes Eddie off guard.

“Hey, what do you think happened to that Richie Tozier guy?” Matt asks and Eddie very nearly chokes on his own coffee. He knows that Richie is probably back at their shared apartment sitting curled up with his laptop working on his new comedy special. Working may be a loose term, however, he might just be scrolling through social media avoiding writing anything at all. Richie hadn’t made a public return yet after his ‘meltdown’ (as the tabloids like to call it) in Vegas. Instead, he was choosing to have a small break from the spotlight as he readjusts to his new life. Eddie was proud of him, knowing that it was the right thing as they both needed a break to settle down comfortably into what they hoped would be the rest of their lives.

“Oh, um, I don’t know,” Eddie eventually lies to Matt, realising he was still waiting on an answer.

“He just seemed to disappear off the face of the Earth,” Matt says with a shrug “TMZ says it’s probably drugs.” Eddie has heard that theory speculated a lot and it made him offended on Richie’s behalf. He didn’t want people thinking that Richie was some sort of drug addict. Even though there is no rational way to describe what they had gone through, Eddie didn’t want people writing Richie off as an irresponsible drug addict when he had actually been so strong and brave.

“I don’t believe that,” Eddie says, and Matt looks at him curiously. Eddie had a lot of certainty to his voice that threw Matt off, Eddie reminded himself that he was supposed to be as clueless as everyone else.

“I mean, what other explanations are there?” Matt questions and Eddie’s mind goes blank on everything except the truth. But there’s no way he is telling Matt that he thinks that Richie had to go back to his hometown to fight a demon clown who had made him forget everything about his childhood. That he had rushed off stage as all of his forgotten childhood traumas crashed into him in an overwhelming tidal wave of emotions. It was at this moment that Paul, Eddie’s boss, walks in, graciously saving him from having to come up with a weak sort of lie. He was an angel to Eddie in that moment and didn’t even realise. 

“What are you talking about?” Paul asks while preparing himself a cup of coffee. Eddie likes Paul, he’s slightly older than Eddie and was a kind manager, easy to talk to. Even though the office was fairly casual, Paul often wore nice, formal blazers similar to Eddie, who was used to that in his old office.

“That Richie Tozier guy” Matt supplies to Paul and Eddie watches as Paul nods slowly in recognition of the name. Richie was a fairly well-known comedian before Vegas, but a hell of a lot more people knew his name now. Eddie was glad that Richie was in Derry for the social media fall out, so he didn’t have to witness it all. His mind was obviously focused on more pressing matters, like the demon clown trying to kill them, reminding them all of their repressed childhood traumas. Eddie had gone back to when it happened on social media, looking at what people said and the ability for people to be so cruel behind the guise on anonymity always shocked Eddie.

“Oh yeah, I wonder what happened to him,” Paul says casually, not seeming to feel the need to follow up with his own theories of what had happened to Richie. Paul never seemed like the type for gossip and Eddie appreciated that. Eddie decides to take this opportunity to leave, before he gets trapped in a one-on-one conversation with Matt again.

“Well, I should probably get back to work,” Eddie says, grateful that he’d already finished his lunch. Matt seems to nod in agreement, also getting up, presumably about to go back to his desk. Before Matt can say anything else Eddie swiftly makes his way to his desk, pulling himself back into the work he’d been working on before, trying to ignore the thoughts telling him of all the awful things people all across the world might have said about Richie. 

\---

Richie makes his big return almost 6 months after he ran off the stage in Vegas. He still isn’t done with his comedy special, but he decided to come out first before he performs his new comedy. He decided it was better to let people know now so that they would know that they were getting with his upcoming comedy special. Eddie couldn’t be prouder of him. Richie decided to come out on an episode of Jimmy Fallon, his first official public appearance since his Vegas show, and the news spread like wildfire afterwards. Eddie put Richie on a total social media blackout the night the episode aired, fearful of any initial backlash. Richie reluctantly agreed but what he didn’t know was that Eddie was addictively loading and reloading Twitter just to make sure that Richie was going to be alright.

The next day at work Eddie isn’t surprised to hear people in the office talking about it, it was the big news of the day after all. Eddie is grateful when Paul doesn’t bring it up in his quick briefing with Eddie that morning. Eddie had decided to stay out of the spotlight for now, not wanting the extra attention of not only the media, but the people in his office as well. If Richie had revealed their relationship publicly there was no way Eddie would have been able to survive all the unwanted attention. They had decided that there were going to wait a few months for the attention to cool off around Richie before publicly posting about their relationship. However, this didn’t stop Richie from constantly filming or taking photos of Eddie and then complaining about not being able to ‘share Eddie’s adorableness with the world’. As much as it annoys Eddie, it feels amazing to be loved so truly.

Eddie’s morning goes relatively normally, despite the occasional mention of Richie from people around the office. Eddie uses as much willpower as he can to not eavesdrop. As much as Eddie tries to focus, he still occasionally flicks over to Twitter just to double check. He’s so happy to see the wave of positivity drowning out the negative backlash. It’s so different to how people in Derry might have reacted, but it just proves how good it was for both of them to get out of their small town, even with the consequences of forgetting.

Eddie purposefully avoids Matt all day, not wanting to hear anything negative that he fears that Matt might say. Matt had never been excessively homophobic, but the odd comment here and there always left a sour taste in Eddie’s mouth. When Eddie takes his lunch break, he’s glad to see that Matt isn’t already there. Instead, he goes and sits by Paul. They sit in silence briefly before Paul breaks it with the one question Eddie was dreading him asking.

“Did you hear the news about that Richie Tozier guy?” Paul asks and Eddie almost laughs. How could he have _not_ heard about it at this point, the fact that he is dating Richie aside. Paul had always been a nice guy, so Eddie hopes that he didn’t have anything negative to say.

“Yeah, big news,” Eddie says and watches as Paul nods in agreement. He wishes that it wasn’t as big of a deal as it is. People are so much more accepting now then they were 27 years ago, but for some reason that still doesn’t stop people from gossiping any time someone in the public eye comes out. Eddie will never understand how Richie can live as a celebrity so publicly scrutinised. Apparently becoming any sort of famous is a trade-off for having any sort of personal life. Even though being a comedian is probably the perfect job for Richie, he doesn’t know how Richie does it. Especially in those 27 years, at least Richie and Eddie have each other now.

Eddie was purposefully blunt with Paul and feels slightly bad about it. Paul was just making small talk, but Eddie couldn’t bear to get stuck in a conversation about Richie. It makes him feel bad as he purposefully conceals the truth. Moving out to L.A. was supposed to be a complete fresh start and yet Eddie still didn’t feel brave enough to be honest.

“Anyway, I should probably get back to work now,” Eddie says trying to excuse himself from the conversation before it takes any worse of an awkward turn.

“Oh yeah, of course wouldn’t want to keep you away from your work,” Paul says with a laugh and Eddie gives him a polite smile. Paul seemed to understand that Eddie didn’t want to talk, and Eddie was incredibly grateful for it. Eddie wishes he was brave enough to be honest and maybe, with the help of Richie, he can be. He is apparently braver than he thinks after all.

\---

The day after Richie’s comedy special drops Eddie walks into work happily. Positive reviews are flowing in and he’s proud of Richie’s new material (even if it is mostly at Eddie’s expense). Eddie told him not to put Eddie’s name in the set, still not ready to be completely bared to the world and have a swarm of new media attention, so at the moment he’s Richie’s mysterious ‘boyfriend’.

“What’s got you in such a good mood today?” Paul asks Eddie after he greets him that morning, giving him a brief update on the new work needing to be done. Eddie shrugs him off with a smile.

“It’s just been a good morning I guess,” he dismisses quickly, and Paul seems happy enough with the answer, letting Eddie get to his desk. Sometimes people just have good days.

The day is fairly uneventful for Eddie, working as normal if you don’t count the quick flick back to the multiple tabs open on his computer with reviews and ratings for Richie’s comedy special. They’re largely positive, praising Richie for his honesty and authenticity. Eddie’s glad, he doesn’t know if he could take a load of negativity, let alone how Richie would feel. This is the most honest he has ever been in his entire life and people fighting back could destroy him. Eddie pushes any thoughts of what could have happened aside, instead focusing on what _did_ happen. Eddie stays in a good mood throughout the morning, however, at lunch Eddie’s good mood is dampened slightly by Matt’s approach.

“Did you see Richie Tozier’s new comedy special that dropped last night?” Matt asks and Eddie slightly braces himself. Matt hadn’t been Richie biggest fan since he came out. He was in Richie’s old target demographic; which Eddie thinks is not the best place to fit.

“Oh, yeah, I saw it,” Eddie says in an attempt to be casual. He had to play off that he’d only seen the jokes once as opposed to the reality of hearing all of the jokes a million times whether Richie was workshopping them, practicing them to himself in the mirror, or pretending to perform them to an audience solely consisting of Eddie on the couch with their dog curled up on his lap. As much as Eddie pretended to be annoyed by it, he was immensely proud of Richie for all the work he was putting into it. He knows that Richie knows that Eddie will always be his number one supporter despite the playful heckling in their home. Eddie suspected that Richie hadn’t been passionate about what he was performing for a long time, if ever. “I thought it was pretty good.”

“I don’t know, I prefer his old stuff honestly,” Matt says, and it takes Eddie a lot of self-restraint to not choke him right then and there. Richie’s old stuff was offensive and inauthentic. Eddie bites back the harsh words he wants to hurtle Matt’s way, instead focusing on keeping his voice calm and steady.

“Really? Why? I think it’s nice he’s being more authentic,” Eddie says in an attempt to stand up for Richie. There was no way he could just stand here and take this criticism on Richie’s behalf.

“His old stuff was funnier before he just made it all about gay shit,” Matt says with a shrug and Eddie can feel his blood boiling. He knows that negativity is just part of the consequences of being a public figure but it’s much harder to deal with when someone he knows in real life is being negative towards Richie, the person he cares most about in the entire world (not that he’d actually tell Richie that to his face, Eddie wouldn’t be able to handle his ego).

“And what’s wrong with gay shit?” Eddie accuses and sees Matt take a step back in shock. Eddie had always been fairly reserved around the office, not letting his emotions get the best of him.

“Woah, man, I didn’t realise you’d care so much,” Matt says, and Eddie has to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Matt doesn’t care about what he said, instead only caring about who he said it _to._

“I’m sorry that you being uncomfortable about gay people has been _so_ inconvenient for you. Trust me when I say that being on the receiving end is much worse.” Eddie didn’t even realise what he said until he sees Matt furrow his brow in confusion. Eddie and Matt seem to realise the meaning behind Eddie’s words at the same time. Eddie feels his gut clench at the realisation that he just came out to Matt of all people, but he forces his insecurities down. This is progress. Instead, he focuses on the fact that Richie would be proud and just the thought keeps Eddie strong.

“Shit, sorry man I didn’t mean-” Matt starts but Eddie shakes his head and Matt cuts himself off.

“No, it’s fine,” Eddie says, he really can’t be bothered being in the conversation anymore. All the happiness he was feeling this morning has just seemed to drain out of him and it’s left him feeling exhausted. “I’m just going to go back to work” he sighs, pushing past Matt and making his way over to his desk.

(later)

Eddie and Richie are curled up in their bed later than evening with their Pomeranian already fast asleep at their feet. Eddie savours these quiet moments between them, not only because he knows he’s the only one to see Richie this quiet, but also because it just seems to fill the intimate hole in their relationship that his marriage with Myra always lacked.

“You know I came out to someone at work today,” Eddie says, filling the calming silence. Eddie feels Richie shift to face him.

“You did? Really?” Richie asks with a smile and Eddie doesn’t have the heart to tell him what had actually happened.

“Yeah it went-, it went well” Eddie lies with a sigh. Richie knows him better than anyone else in the world and can almost definitely tell that he’s lying. Instead of bringing it up, Eddie feels Richie’s grip on him tighten in comfort. Apparently sometimes, he knows when not to speak. Eddie relishes in the comfort until he drifts off into a calm, comfortable sleep.

\---

The holiday season was fast approaching, and Eddie’s office had decided to throw an office Christmas party. Originally, Eddie wasn’t going to go, but as soon as Richie heard about it, he had practically begged Eddie to go together. The rest of Eddie’s office still didn’t know about Richie, they didn’t even know he was gay, aside from Matt of course. They still hadn’t really talked about Eddie coming out, and Eddie was grateful, unsure if he could handle the awkwardness. After a couple weeks of practically begging, Richie had finally broken Eddie down enough to agree to them going together. Now seemed a good a time as any. Eddie was tired of feeling like he was hiding the biggest part of his life. He was a fully grown adult goddamnit he should be able to bring the love of his life to a fucking holiday party.

The day of the Christmas party Paul asked Eddie if he was bringing anybody to the party while they were both grabbing a cup of shitty coffee from the coffee machine. Initially the question caught Eddie off guard but after the initial shock wore off Eddie replied “Yeah, actually I’m bringing my boyfriend,” in a spur of confidence. Eddie watched as a brief look of confusion passed over Paul’s face, but it quickly turned to understanding.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were gay” Paul says and Eddie shrugs casually, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Never seemed relevant,” Eddie says, and it’s mostly true. Eddie didn’t talk much about his personal life at work. He would consider Paul his friend, despite the fact that Paul’s his boss, but he was so used to never properly connecting with people he worked with. It was a habit he formed at his New York office with Myra constantly breathing down his neck. He hadn’t even realised how much she controlled every aspect of his life until he left her, but sometimes old habits die hard. When you’re used to living a lie, lying becomes much more comfortable than telling the truth.

“I suppose,” Paul says, “I’m looking forward to meeting him.” Eddie smiles feeling a sense of relief at the easy acceptance of Paul, but he also smiles at the fact that Richie was going to be a lot more than Paul bargained for.

(later)

When Richie and Eddie arrive, the party is already in full swing; or at least as full swing as an office party filled with middle-aged people can get. Eddie tried hesitating at the door, knowing that Richie walking in will give him a lot more attention than he’s used to, but Richie didn’t let him wait, instead grabbing his hand and pulling him through the door.

People are staring as soon as they’re through the door. Most of the people try to act as if they’re not, quickly flicking their eyes back and forth between them at the door and whatever they were doing before. Richie doesn’t appear to mind, seemingly used to the extra attention. Eddie seriously doesn’t know how he does it.

Eddie catches Paul’s eyes from across the room and gives a small smile and wave. Paul fails to hide his shocked expression as he excuses himself from his prior conversation to make his way over to Richie and Eddie.

“So, uh, this is my boyfriend,” Eddie says, awkwardly gesturing to Richie, “Unfortunately.” Both he and Paul laugh as Richie elbows Eddie in the side.

“Right, well, um, it’s nice to meet you,” Paul says, politely holding out his hand for Richie to take, “I’m Paul.”

“Richie,” Richie says shaking Paul’s hand, ignoring the fact that it was obvious Paul knew that already. It doesn’t take too long for the awkward elephant in the room of Richie’s fame to wear off and soon Richie and Paul are making polite small talk. Eddie has mostly decided to stay out of the conversation, still feeling weird that his work and private life have collided with each other.

Eventually Paul leaves them be and Eddie internally winces when he sees Matt walking towards him.

“Richie, this is Matt,” Eddie says when Matt arrives, gesturing to Matt, “Matt, this is my boyfriend.” Eddie watches as Matt’s eyes widen in realisation, although he seems to be fighting to not let too much show on his face.

“Boyfriend. Wow,” Matt says awkwardly, and Eddie almost feels bad for him. He watches as Matt appears to connect the pieces that the mystery boyfriend in Richie’s comedy special had really been Eddie all along. That the reason Eddie defended Richie so fiercely before was because when Matt insulted Richie, possibly even without any intention of harm, he was effectively insulting Eddie too. Eddie sees out of the corner of his eye Richie’s jaw clench and Eddie lightly rests his hand in the small of Richie’s back as an act of reassurance. Even though Richie had faced plenty of homophobia online, he still had instinctive reflexes built into him from childhood.

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Matt” Richie says politely, holding out his hand. Richie always was a good actor. Matt takes it and shakes it slowly and Eddie wishes he would just be abducted by aliens or something to get out of the awkwardness of this situation.

“Yes, good to meet you too,” Matt replies “I should, um, get something to drink.” Eddie’s immediately grateful that Matt also doesn’t want to be in this conversation anymore. Matt shuffles past them and Eddie turns to Richie who’s looks at him, his lips pressed in a thin line.

“Whatever, let’s just have fun” Eddie says, surprising himself. Eddie sees any tension dissipate from Richie’s shoulders as he smiles, falling back into the comfort he was in before. Parties were part of Richie’s element, even shitty low-budget office Christmas parties.

After a while Eddie finally settles into the party with the help of a few drinks. Alcohol really is a miracle worker. There’s a sort-of dance floor in the middle of the office where some people are vaguely dancing around. Eddie has managed to avoid it until he hears the familiar drums of the start of Africa by Toto come through the speakers. He watches as Richie’s eyes widen in familiarity, turning to Eddie.

“No,” Eddie says before Richie can even ask, knowing that Richie is going to try and get him to dance.

“But this is _our song,”_ Richie pleads with a childish pout. Eddie tries staring him down with a stone-cold glare, refusing to smile despite what his instinct tells him.

“This is not our song,” Eddie says with an eye-roll, but Richie has already grabbed his hand pulling Eddie towards the centre of the room. Eddie follows reluctantly, knowing Richie is not one to back down from getting what he wants. Richie is already moving along to the opening melody and Eddie can’t help but smile, his true emotions breaking through his annoyed façade. Richie may be an idiot but at least he’s cute when he does it. He watches as Richie starts singing along and it’s infectious. Eddie can’t help but join in at the chorus.

“It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you,” they sing together, and Eddie forgets that he’s at his office. The only thing Eddie can see is Richie right in front of him. “There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do! I bless the rains down in Africaaaaa!” Eddie can’t help the wide smile breaking out across his face and he’s laughing, really laughing. One of those deep belly laughs that it hurts to breath. One of those laughs that only Richie can bring out in him. They exist in their own little bubble and they feel infinite. All memories of homophobia or Derry just melt away as they sing together, staring into each other’s eyes.

As the final chorus starts to fade out Eddie collapses into Richie’s arms, panting. They slowly sway together as the next song, thankfully a much slower one, starts to play through the speakers. Eddie smiles back up at Richie.

“I love you,” Eddie says, even though he knows he doesn’t need to, the way he and Richie are looking at each other should be confirmation enough. It’s not the first time he’s said it, and it certainly won’t be the last. Without even thinking Eddie reaches up and captures Richie’s lips with his own. It’s barely longer than a few seconds but it says everything else Eddie needs to say. _‘I love you, thank you, I never want to let you go’._ The sounds of other people talking slowly brings Eddie back down to reality and his and Richie’s bubble of euphoria bursts as Eddie realises that he’s still in the middle of the dance floor at his office Christmas party and all of his colleagues are watching him, some more subtly than others.

Eddie steps back from Richie, clearing his throat and fixing his shirt. He feels heat rise in his cheeks in embarrassment but looking at Richie with his wide, loving smile lets all of those feelings wash away. Richie had always had that effect on him, even when they were just kids. No matter what horrible things had happened that day, Richie could always bring him down; make him feel alright.

“I’m going to get us drinks,” Eddie tells Richie and sees Richie nod. When Eddie’s over by the drinks Paul approaches him. Eddie tries to force down his instinctive feelings of fear, he did just kiss Richie in the middle of the dance floor.

“You seem good together” Paul says with a smile and Eddie feels a sense of relief wash over him. Of course everything’s fine, this is _Paul._

“Thanks,” Eddie replies glancing down at his feet which were awkwardly shuffling; he never was good at taking compliments. Eddie’s surprised by the feeling of an arm wrapping around his shoulder, but instantly calms down when he realises it’s Richie.

“Did you forget how to get drinks or something?” Richie jokes and Eddie suddenly remembers what he was doing over here in the first place. Paul laughs politely.

“I’ll let you two get back to having fun” Paul says, excusing himself. Eddie looks over at Richie with his stupid smile on his face after watching Paul move away and decides that coming to party might not actually have been as bad as he thought. Sure, it’s weird knowing everyone in his office has seen him with his guard down, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Maybe it’s a sign of his life really changing for the better. If Richie can be brave enough authentic in front of the whole world then Eddie can in front of the people he works with. Richie makes him feel brave enough to be himself, something he had never thought possible. Despite all the nicknames and the teasing Richie truly loves Eddie and Eddie loves him back with his whole heart, and that’s all that really matters.


End file.
